It’s becoming a big favorite around our lab and it just got even better: MeshMixer 2.5 offers some very interesting new features.

Where do we start? Well, one of the really interesting features is “Hollow”, which subtracts a volume from the innards of your solid model as per your directions. You can select the resulting thickness and various other parameters. You can also request a “hole” at the bottom for access to remove supports - or if you’re printing on a powder device, you can remove excess powder from the interior. All in all, this one should save you some material costs when printing.

Check out the image at top, where we’ve hollowed a sculpture. You can clearly see the subtracted volume inside of the original shape.

There’s many more fascinating features that we will be testing. And you should too. Here’s a list of the items we found notable:

A “Bridge” tool to assist filling the sometimes nasty gaps in 3D scans. You can’t always mush them over and have a good result - this tool properly seals them with bridges.

Multicolor workflow is now supported for those with dual extruders.

A Thickness Analysis tool to show weak spots in your model. The image above shows the results of analyzing our sculpture.

The Pattern generator is amazing. It can apply a pattern to an existing object. For example, we transformed a simple cube into the wildly distorted shape above by subtracting a pattern of wacky spheres. With this, the possibilities are endless.

VRML output is now possible. This means you can paint the surface of an object and export it for 3D printing on full-color 3D printers, such as 3D System’s ProJet 660. Now, if MeshMixer would only let us import VRML scans.

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Fabbaloo is a daily online publication focusing on the 3D print and additive manufacturing industries. We provide deeper analysis of developments in current and future technologies as well as corporate matters. If there’s something happening in 3D technologies, especially FDM, SLA, SLS and Stereolithography, we’ll have an opinion about it.